The Awakening-Kate Chopin

The Awakening-Kate Chopin

In a little four-room house around the corner. It looks so cozy, so inviting and restful.(79) With this description Chopin introduces the reader to Edna's new residence, which is affectionately known as the pigeon house. The pigeon house provided Edna with the comfort and security that her old house lacked. The tranquility that the pigeon house granted to Edna allowed her to experience a freedom that she had never felt before. The change in scenery gave Edna the freedom to explore herself. The pigon house gave Edna financial freedom from her husband, physical and spiritual freedom, and an excape from society.

The first taste of this newfound freedom is the satisfaction that Edna felt in being able to provide for herself with her own money. The fact that she no longer had to rely on her husband's money broke the tie that she had with him: I know I shall like it, like the feeling of freedom and independence.(80) In her mind, her marriage was dead, and Mr. Pontellier had no control over her.

Financial freedom is not the only thing the pigeon house gave to Edna; it also allowed her both physical and spiritual freedom. When Edna kissed Arobin in her husband's house, she felt reproach looking at her from the external things around her which he had provided for her external existence.(84) Yet, her first night at the pigeon house she spent with Arobin, and this time felt no reproach or regret. As for the spiritual ramifications provided by her new home, Chopin wrote, There was a feeling of descending in the social scale, with the corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual.., she began to look with her own eyes... no longer was she content to feed upon opinion.(94) This gave her the freedom to make the decisions in her life; and she decided that she was going to live life by her own rules, not the rules that society has laid out for her. When she is within her home, she is free from the pressures of being...